Wilting Blossoms of Adorations Past
by Full-RoseBell-Kuchiki
Summary: This is the first Chapter and in this we meet my orignal character Sakura Kuchiki for the first time, she has returned home after having been missing for 65 years
1. 1000 goodbyes

There was something unnerving to this feeling, like when there is a blade close to your head...It was a strange yet firmilar Reiatsu, like a memory....One that floats on the edge of dreaming.

Byakuya rolled onto his stomache and looked through the crack in his sliding door. And low and behold there it was. The owner of the strange Reiatsu was standing on top of the garden wall of the Kuchiki Manor. A chimming sound resinanted from the figure, like Zaraki's bells, they had a scarf on,in the same style of the Kuchiki heirloom. He strained his eyes to see in the dark of his room, the moon was full and white silver behind the intruder. They were wearing an umarked haori, No number in their gotei diamond, the only thing Captain related to it was the design on the bottom.

The figure looked him straight in the eye,despite both their faces in shadow, they lite up an unearthly violet as they had looked right into the Nobleman's soul. Then as soon as it had appeared it was had used Flash Step with considerable ease which made it almost impossible to follow in the dark, at least with your eyes anyway.

For something so strange to happen like that, no one would ever just be able to waltz into the Manor so deeply without being stopped or aprehended, this person must have been either in the stealth force or some one who knew the layout well, where non of the guards had a was something too serious to go back to sleep. Hopefully Senbonzakura would get enough for both of them,it was only 3 am in the morning. For now was time to prepare for tomorrow, paper work need filed and Byakuya needed showered and dressed.A cold sweat had beaded down his spine, he had not feared the vision but something about it made his body betray him as well as his mind to free, to stare blankly like a rabbit caught in a stot's gaze.

He got up, padded nervously towards his private Bathroom, straining his ears to hear those resisnating bells, if that was what they were.

Byakuya sat in his bath, running his fingers through his damp hair, the steam was covering all his skin that wasn't submerged in a thin film. Every thing was hazy to look at, he liked it, the feeling of being in his own world, no one would bother him while he was in the bath, all there was there was the sound of his own breathing, the taps dipping every few minutes and the soft plunging noises as he moved his legs, bending them so his knees were now submerged as well.

Absent mindedly he tapped a rose petal that was floating on the surface, it hadn't been that long since Valentines day...only 25 hours and he HAD to do something with the torrents of red roses -meaning love- he had been given by nearly half the female population of the Soul Society and probably the whole of it's gay why not use them in the bath?

Byakuya's head stung. Nerve endings in his brain were firing off, his nose began to bleed as the strain burst the small versals inside it, two to the drops of blood fell towards the water, he caught them in the palms of his hands.

He winced as it twinged, he could see a face before him, glowing cheeks and golden brown hair, eyes that were hazel and rimmed in purple...Byakuya was remembering things he had long since repressed. The resurfacing of repressed memories is always painful, it's an accepted fact in life, most people tend to forget where others like Byakuya purposely bury them. It was agony as parts of his childhood, seemingly the best came back to light. He could hear a voice in his ears, one that had long since disappeared from the Manor House 65 years ago.

_"...Bya-kun...Hey Byakuya, are you going to come and play?"_

_"No, I have training to do."_

_"Awww, c'mon, Akira is there too!..."_

Suddenly he was aware of someone's blade against his throat, strangely the blunt side yet it was still frightening, how could he have not noticed an intruder.

"What's this? The Kuchiki son ,heir and head of Clan off his guard?" The blade retracted. Byakuya turned around to see who had been within an ace of assasinating him. It was the figure, only the eyes no longer shown with the moon light, her face was covered with a strange white mask, a small version of a menos grande's. He removed it, and there was the was the face...there she was...Sakura?

"Yo Midnight."

All went dark, Byakuya slipped under the water....

~* * * ~


	2. 1000 greetings

Chapter 2

The chirping of the finches woke him, with bleery eyes he looked around, he was dry and in bed again, next to him on her knees Sakura sat brushing her hair as if she done so every day. The mask sat drying on a chair in front of the open sliding door to the garden, the ties waved slightly in the wind, it was a relic of his and her past, when both hisana and Akira were alive and when the two of them close as the elders ever allowed.

She looked to the time piece on desk through in Byakuya's study. Standing up and placing the brush gently on the vanity stand with a light tap she looked at Byakuya blinked coldly like he did and reached down and ran her hand down the side of his head, his silken hair ran between her finger tips. He felt frozen, his body was reacting badly to the feel of her reiatsu.

"I need to call into Kenpachi Taichou." She turned and her scarf swished the same way his did. She didn't sneak out like she had to get in, boldly stepping out of his room and walking down the hall. the elders already knew she was here no doubt.

Where to begin with Sakura...enigmatic now.

Sakura Kuchiki, mother from the Kira's, father was a didn't look too Kuchiki, her hair was golden brown and eyes were hazel and rimmed with purple. Her face had the typical shape most of Byakuya's family even him and her hair grew in the same manner his did. Sakura had always known Byakuya, he had been her favorite cousin, only a few years seperated them, Byakuya being the elder. In fact the scarf she wore in the same way as him was a birthday gift he gave her not long before she disappeared, she loved it dearly, her most cherished pocession along with the mask, a small replica of a Menos Grande's. She had been something of a troubled child when living with her parents and was often sent to stay with him along with her other cousin Akira. Though the three of them mixed well Byakuya was often taught with best of scholars and instructors, so did Akira. Sakura was often left behind, everyone in the family thinking it more important to have the boys taught the sword and the most knowledge.

This was considered the reason Sakura had turned out so anti-tradition as she had and wanted nothing that came with the family name. She carved her own path, further and further away from them. Often it sadened a younger Byakuya, she disappeared not long before Hisana past away.

The streets were filled with many new faces as she walked through them, the amount of attention she was getting was unbelievable, people that didn't know her were staring at her dress, someone even thought it was Byakuya out of the corner of their eye, a small group whispered, maybe Mayuri had gotten his hands on the captain and changed him into a woman. The walk way into the training grounds of the eleventh division was very firmiliar, and the shouts and battle cries of the shinigami was music to her ears something she had missed terribly. From the corner of her eye she could see three shinigami with pouting lips and bad hair cuts. Elevenths for sure. Discarding the haori in a near by bush she turned and looked in their direction. They seemed to gavitate towards her.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing in a place like this? Huh?"

"Yeah...delicate flowers like should be in their captains office."

"Is that so?" She unseathed her blade, holding it casually by her side.

"Hey now, you'd better put that away, girls shouldn't fight men like us."

"Baka." closing her eyes and sighing.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT! Did you just call me stupid?"

" Oh no she didn't!"

"She did!"

"baka."

On rushed at her, she just smiled as she parryed his sword. No technique. He jabbed wildly and slashed with disregard, all the while she blocked or swatted his blade away. He was sweating a lot and breathing heavily, standing hunched over. Sakura raised her hand, stepping forward, she barely placed her hand square on his chest and he fell to the ground, eyes swilling in his head.

" you two! Get Kenpachi Taichou." she gave the trade mark glare she shared with Byakuya and the scampered off. Kicking the foot of the fallen shinigami, she sniffed.

"Drunkard"

Turning as she felt the enormus reiatsu of her captain, Kenpachi Zaraki stood largerthan life before her. His face was a picture. His voice sounded some what strained.

"Sakura...?"

"Ken-chan." She looked round him and saw Yumichika with the same shocked expression, " you wanna go out for lunch?"

"Ah...ah...yeah."

" SAKURA~~~" Yumichika jumped beside her and squeezed the living daylights out of her, she and him had gotten fairly close and were good friends, they worked the same posistion really, she helped with all the paper work that no one bothered to do.

"You're staying this time?"


	3. 1000 revelations

Chapter 3

"It depends" she stretched, and leaned against the tree they sat underneath. " I was getting annonymous hell butterflies asking me to come back...no idea how they found me but the last one was from Gin." She raised an eyebrow as the other drew back in shock. Renji and Kira had joined them, and kept staring at her, she never said who she was other than "Hi, I'm Sakura". Sakura stared back at Izuru, intently, a relative of some connection, she knew him since he was in the Academy, though he didn't know her.

" I don't get it, why would he go to the bother to get you to come back?"

" Dunno."

"So you knew Ichimaru Taicho?"

"Sure did, Kira, infact we were the best of friends for a while, even used to be in 5th Division with him."

"So you transferred?"

" Abarai-kun, don't be so rude."

"No it's ok. He's only curious." Sakura shrugged. "Put it this way the only Divisions I haven't been in are 2nd and 12th." the sound of their jaws dropping could almost be heard. The 11th Division boys just sat sipping their drinks without saying anything. Sakura stood up and clicked her spine. " I'd better head back and see Bya-kun."

"Who?" Renji raised an ornate eyebrow.

" Kuchiki Taicho."

"Bya-kun!"

"Yeah, Red. Horrible isn't it, to think some one like me has a cold asshole like that for a cousin." She said it dramatically.

" Bye, Kuchiki-san." Yumichika waved up at her.

" KUCHIKI!"

Renji fell over himself as he stood to his feet.

"Yeah, you coming too?"

Renji fell into walking behind her, she carried herself the same way as her cousin, head tilted to the same degree, Renji felt like he did with his captain, she exzuded the same vibes of strength and every now and then she'd look back to make sure Renji was there or hadn't gotten caught with friends, Byakuya would just have kept walking confident Renji would follow.

"I did come back because Ichimaru-kun ask, but that's not the only reason." She smirked back at Renji.

" Oh?"

"I'm going to take over."

" Over what."

" What's rightfully mine."

" and that is? exactly?"

" 6th Division."

**Wow, short chapter is short...**

**Never mind I was hoping to make this one full of impact.**


	4. 1000 Smiles

Chapter 4

Byakuya's mind was reeling, she had disappeared and there were many reports that she was swallowed by a Garganta, making no to effort to escape as it closed around her. So what had she been doing for so long? Had she really been trapped in Heuco Mundo or the swirling blackness of the Garganta. He sat staring that the paperwork that denounced her as good as dead, there were so many different versions of her disappearance, and it was hard to discern what was true and what was not. He was so absorbed in what he was reading he didn't notice Renji walking in, only raising his head when Sakura's reitsu hit him square between the eyes.

"I brought you're Fuku-Taichou back while I was at it." She pulled up a chair and looked at the paper work on the desk. "Wow...some people got really imaginative about how I died."

"It is not something to be laughed at. Nor should you act so familiar with people."

"Why not? That's how you make friends! Ain't it Red?"

"…uh…I …ah…. Kuchiki Taichou is right!"

"Really? Well I guess it's about time I found Gin, don't chya think?"

"Ichimaru Taichou is a busy man." Byakuya frowned.

"Can't be that busy if Kira-kun was having lunch with us." She picked up some of the reports and sifted through them, humming and haying, picking out a dozen very entertaining versions. "I'ma take these and let him read 'em , these are just too farfetched not to be laughed at."

The captain did not even bother to argue as she had already walked out the door. He envied that she could just be who she was and have to act or restrain herself. Even now in his own private time he would remain calm and collected, not showing any temper it was a long way he had come from being so hot tempered and a fiery youth. But also, her rebellion had lead her into living in squad barracks most of the time so she spent more time with people that valued being the self that you were, not to mention Ukitake's time with her had calmed much of her spirit down, his gentle ways and turn of phrase had enthralled her, and she had learned the subtle arts of being sweet and polite to the point of being terrifying from Unohana.

Byakuya had never liked Gin and Sakura being friends, as children he Gin creeped him out, Sakura was one of his squad mates as children, where Gin was considered a protégé

She was simply quite gifted, but it was Gin's encouragement that she decided to become better and enroll into the Academy again for a full six years, her first enrollment had only lasted 2 and a half years because of her excellent use of kidou but had declined to join the Kidou corps in favor of 5th Division where all her friends had been placed.

During her second enrollment she had been a Senpai to Kira, for a short while before graduating back into fifth division and then being transferred to eighth, then Ukitake had offered to take her in to try and calm down her temper and heated nature of her loathing for certain squad mates, Ukitake in turn transferred her to tenth believing her to be a good companion for Hitsugaya and a hard worker for in the offices and able to lead training. Through clerical error she appeared on first divisions rolls for about a month and when this was being amended ended up just placed in forth. Every division she had been part of did not seem to find the right place for her, she seemed too well rounded in abilities to be part of any specialized squads. When Gin gained Captain status of third he immediately took Sakura into his offices, and often trained one on one with her for the squad's amusement. But as happy she and Ichimaru had been as part of third Kenpachi had wanted her in with his for a long time, before finally bullying Gin into giving her over on the grounds that eleventh was the one true division for her. Surprisingly, he was right.

It was ironic to say the least, however she never outed her Zanpaktou as a kidou type nor did she ever use her spell abilities, getting by with sheer strength,determination and use of reiatsu. Some in her division believed that like Kenpachi she was always in Shikai, but it wasn't a lack of control but rather a lack of caring. Eleventh was mainly men which suited her even better, not caring for the company of other women.

Gin stood outside his office smiling like a rapist as always. He lifted his head in surprise, his hair bounced slightly and the smile seemed to widen to an unholy extent. Unfolding his arms and clapped his hands together holding them to his chin, giving her a side long glance as she walked along the board walk out of the sun and into the shade.

"Neh...Well well...look who it is, I was beginn' ta think ya weren't gonna show."

"Then you were wrong, weren't you? You know I've got goals to acheive here."

"Yeah...still, the way ya appeared from out of the rain,that was jus' plain creepy..."

"I see you were asking too then?"

"Yeah... where did ya go?"

"I was around and about."

"Living world?"

"Yeah"

"An' they never found ya, shame on 'em...Or did ya get a lil' help from an old friend?"

"Perhaps...I needed somewhere to stay..."

"Shame on ya."

"Of course..."

"Well, if ya're gonna be takin' off again, Give the old guy my regards..."

"I'm sure he'd love that."

"Ya ne'er know..."


End file.
